Jair Bolsonaro, the retired military man who was President of Brazil between 2019 and 2022, was questioned this Thursday by the federal police in Brasilia about the attempted coup of which he and twenty collaborators are accused. The former president and 22 other suspects, including several reserve generals and other junior soldiers, were summoned to police stations in several cities. Bolsonaro and other defendants have exercised their right to remain silent. The former president's lawyer said he “fears nothing because he did nothing,” adding that “he never had any sympathy for any coup movement.”
The right-wing extremist has called on his supporters to a major event in São Paulo this Sunday to reject accusations that he considers to be absolutely unfounded and part of a political and judicial persecution. A Protestant priest will pay for the crime.
Maintaining silence is the strategy chosen by Bolsonaro's defense in the face of the judge's refusal to grant him access to all the evidence against him. The former president demanded detailed information about the confession of Lieutenant Mauro Cid, who was his private secretary during his term as private secretary. Cid's cell phone proved particularly valuable, full of messages, audio recordings and documents that are now being included in the investigation. Police also found on a computer in Lieutenant Cid's house a draft coup decree that called for the arrest of Supreme Court judge Alexander de Moraes, who is leading the main investigation into Bolsonarism.
The former president made three requests to postpone the interrogation, but all were rejected by Judge Moraes, the same one who is investigating the violent attack by thousands of Bolsonaro supporters on the three powers' headquarters in Brasilia. Dozens of the material authors of this violent and celebratory invasion have been sentenced to harsh sentences in recent months. But it is only now that the suspected backers and masterminds are being targeted by the police.
Bolsonaro and his alleged accomplices are accused of trying to prevent the return of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to power by drawing up a coup decree, putting pressure on the top of the armed forces and carrying out disinformation campaigns on social networks to undermine the credibility of the president undermining the electoral system and incentivizing thousands of Bolsonaro supporters to camp outside barracks across the country during the transition of power and demand military intervention against Lula.
As a precautionary measure in this case, Bolsonaro is banned from traveling outside Brazil and police have confiscated his passport. The Supreme Court and the police are also investigating several generals, an admiral and other soldiers and civilians. Four of them have been in preventive detention for several weeks.
Sunday's rally on Paulista Avenue, the main political venue in São Paulo, will be the first major rally attended by Bolsonaro since his election defeat to Lula. During this time, he took part in small political events, although the judges barred him from running until 2030 a few months ago. Several allied governors have announced their presence at the event, including that of São Paulo and Tarcisio de Freitas, one of the top candidates to succeed Bolsonaro as leader of the Brazilian right if he were completely removed from the political front.
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